Cadency
by omurice
Summary: Ichigo and Rukia and snapshots of an unlikely relationship. One-shot and drabbles
1. Warm Hands, Warmer Hearts

_**Written 3 years ago, just being edited and uploaded. Looking at my old stuff, including this one, I see how immature my writing was. Hopefully I've improved and you'll see that in my newer stuff!**_

_Author's Note: This is my first Ichigo/Rukia fic, but I love these two characters and their personalities. I usually work with Naruto pairings so hopefully you guys like this one. _

_This will most likely end up being a collection of one-shots/drabbles so please don't be put off by the apparent lack of a storyline. _

_Disclaimer: I don't own Bleach_

**Warm Hands, Warmer Hearts**

When Ichigo woke in the middle of the night and blinked into the shadows of his room, Rukia wasn't there.

He glared blearily at the open closet door for a moment, and even in the darkness he could make out the indent on the cot where her small form would normally be sleeping, her fist tucked under her chin. A light bre eze wafted through his room and Ichigo frowned at the open window for a moment before lazily throwing back his covers and making his way to the roof where he knew he would find her.

Just as he'd predicted, she was perched comfortably on the edge of his roof. The night was cold and starless, but the moon was heavy overhead when he stood behind her. Ichigo scowled down at her tiny form, his height and leverage making her seem that much tinier.

"What are you doing up here?"

It didn't surprise him that she already knew he was there before he spoke. Rukia glanced over her shoulder at him and shrugged. "I just wanted to get some air."

Her voice had taken him off guard when he'd first heard it long ago. Her build was so slight and deceptively fragile he had expected a small, thin, gentle murmur of a voice but when she squared her feet and addressed him the sound had been rich, deep, strong and confident.

Ichigo scratched the back of his head before sitting down beside her. Neither of them said anything, both too wise to talk just to fill silences. He glanced at her, taking in the dark shine of her hair as she looked over the city. It was the city they guarded together, seeking souls and spirits.

The chill of the night returned to him with a renewed vigor and he rubbed halfheartedly at the goose bumps that were raising themselves along his exposed arms. His movements halted when he realized that Rukia was shivering and he could feel her shudders in their proximity. Her hands were trembling and she clenched them together, attempting to hide the shaking. It didn't escape him- that or the way she gritted her teeth to stop their chattering.

Damn her and her ridiculous pride.

Ichigo rolled his eyes silently before reaching over and grabbing her hands, a little rougher than he had intended.

Rukia stiffened and stared at him in confusion, her eyebrows arched. "Ichigo, what do you think you're-"

"Don't be stupid," he cut her off roughly.

Rukia glared at him defiantly for a moment as if she would pull away, but then relented to his strong hands. Her hands were so much smaller than his and felt like ice. Ichigo rubbed them gently between his own, squeezing her fingers lightly. Rukia looked away in embarrassment, trying to look annoyed in her nervousness.

"My mother used to do this."

Rukia looked at Ichigo in surprise, her dark eyes wide, only to find him concentrated on their joined hands with a familiar scowl on his face.

"She'd do this when my hands got cold."

"Ichigo…" Rukia breathed.

He brought her hands up to his face and Rukia jerked in surprise when he blew lightly on them. His breath was comfortably warm, and Rukia's startled stare jumped from her hands up to his face and back again. He breathed once more and when he finally released her newly warmed hands, she realized she'd been holding her breath.

He sat awkwardly for a moment and after a short silence Rukia allowed herself a small smile.

"Thank you."

He merely made a sound of acknowledgement and continued to frown into the night.

The two sat like that for some time with warm hands and warmer hearts.

END

_Author's Note: I'm not sure if I should leave this as a stand alone one shot or if I'll add more chapters as drabbles. Let me know what you think._


	2. I Dare You to Drown

AN: Ideas sprouting left and right, but I'm currently studying abroad in Morocco and I'm kept busy enough that I don't really get much time to sit and write. Thanks for the reviews on the first chapter everyone!

I do not own these characters. All creative genius belongs to Tite Kubo

* * *

><p><strong>Floating<strong>

She sat at the edge of the pool as her classmates tried not to drown.

Or at least that's what it seemed they were doing. They had insisted that she join, but this was just another human activity she didn't quite understand. After all, Rukia had passed over too young to learn while alive and such things had never had a part in her years in Rukongai or in her shinigami life afterwards. And now, stuck somewhere in between in her borrowed form, it still didn't come easily to her. Her small feet trailed in the strange-smelling water (Inoue had called it chlorine?) as the boys splashed playfully at girls who shrieked in feigned resistance. The water sparkled cheerfully in the sunlight, the definition of inviting but Rukia sat and watched.

Inoue broke from the group and swam over, bright hair slick and gleaming. Leaning over the edge she beamed up at her, slightly out of breath, "Kuchiki-san, won't you join us? It's so pleasant in the water!"

Rukia shook her head lightly, "It's nice out here, too."

Tugging teasingly at one of the feet dipped in the pool, Inoue started to try again. "Oh, please join..."

Her invitation trailed off as a lean shadow fell over the two girls. Rukia looked over her shoulder, blinking up at the figure outlined by brightness. Ichigo squinted down at them, dressed in swim trunks and a towel hooked by two fingers and thrown over his shoulder. Rukia noted that even he appeared affected by the day's activities, brow mostly smoothed of frowns and posture more relaxed.

"Yo," he greeted.

Orihime spoke first, one hand raised in welcome. "Kurosaki-kun! I was just trying to convince Kuchiki-san to swim with us."

Ichigo raised an eyebrow in question towards Rukia and she shrugged in response. After a few moments punctuated by Orihime's hopeful eyes and Ichigo's curious gaze she sighed and admitted shamelessly, "I don't know how."

Orihime made a noise of comprehension and exclaimed, "Please, I would love to teach you! It really is not very hard at all."

"Well, I-" Rukia started to protest but Ichigo cut her off with a smirk that came off as, and probably was, a challenge.

"You scared, Rukia?"

A muscle near her temple twitched and Rukia turned a glare on Ichigo. "I am _not_ afraid, you fool. Not knowing how to do something is not the equivalent of being afraid of it, idiot."

"Well, someone's offering to take care of the 'not knowing how' ain't they?," Ichigo retorted. When Rukia's only response was to treat him to a sharper glare, he lifted and dropped a shoulder before turning away. "Suit yourself."

He didn't make it two feet before Inoue's cry of surprise had him looking back around just in time to see Rukia's slim form breaking the glittering surface, elegant even in her inexperience. It took him about five long, tense seconds before he realized she wasn't coming back up. In those same five seconds Rukia was vacillating between chastising herself for being so rash and trying to will her limbs into action. It might have been inappropriate to say her classmates had been drowning, but she was certainly showing them how it should be done.

She didn't have much time to panic in the eerily calm underwater before a muted _splash_ reached her waterlogged ears, followed by blurred sunlight filtering through orange hair and warm arms pulling her up, up until she broke through gasping and sputtering and trying to blink the water from her disoriented eyes.

"You little _idiot!_" Ichigo shouted through heavy breathing, the harshness of his voice at odds with the concern in his glower and the way he moved to keep her afloat. "What the hell was that?"

Coughing, Rukia braced her hands against his shoulders to glare right back, "W-What? You're the one who challenged me!"

Mouth dropping open in disbelief Ichigo practically growled, "Challenge? I meant you should learn, _not _throw yourself in and prove you can sink like a rock!"

Rukia started to counter but suddenly the sun was too bright, the worried exclamations around her too loud and Ichigo was much, much too close. She was abruptly aware that she was pressed against the heat of his body by the arm around her waist while his free limbs worked to keep them at the surface. For a moment he froze and as they bobbed precariously in the pool Rukia knew he'd realized too. Eyes wide, she jerked and moved to put distance between them because Rukia was not one for such closeness, and surely neither was Ichigo but there he was tightening his hold.

"Hey! Stop flailing!" He warned sharply before taking in the discomfort coloring Rukia's face. Blinking he tried again, more gently this time. "What're you scared for dimwit, I'm not gonna let you drown."

Ichigo's rough assurance and his unrelenting proximity made her fidget once more before she forced herself to relax against him. "I'm _not_ afraid," she insisted once more.

And it was true, although both of them know they might drown in more than just water.


	3. Man in the Moon

I was just having a conversation with some friends about how as a child in Korea, I learned there was a rabbit in the moon and was upset when upon moving to America people insisted it was a man, not a cute rabbit.

Found I was recycling a lot of ideas/themes but bear with me, I'll get it out of my system!

Disclaimer: I own nothing and am merely mooching of Tite Kubo's genius.

Man in the Moon

"Look, Rukia nee-chan." Yuzu chimed, laying one hand on Rukia's folded knee while pointing with the other. "See? It's the bunny in the moon!"

Shooting an alarmed look at the young girl who was comically almost the same size as she, Rukia blinked up at the moon. It hung low and full in the night sky, ringed by a halo of its own soft light; but as far as Rukia could make out there was no adorable fuzzy animal there.

"I see no bunny." She shook her head at the girl and turned her curiosity on Ichigo. "Do you see it?"

Ichigo cracked one eye open from his spot lying back against the roof with his hands folded under his head. He snorted, "It's not an actual rabbit, it's just a bunch of…" he squinted while searching for the word. "Holes. You know, craters."

Rukia was about to ask another question when Yuzu piped, "I'm going to get the tea! The meteor shower should be soon."

The sound of her footsteps as she shuffled off faded to silence as Ichigo closed his eyes again and Rukia tilted her head to scrutinize the moon. The pale orb loomed, and sure enough she could make out the darker areas potmarking the surface, mapping centuries of resilience and battering. But nothing else.

Her intent inspection didn't go unnoticed and Ichigo raised an eyebrow. "Oi, I'm serious, it's just people seeing something out of nothing. It's a rabbit here, but people in the west call it a man in the moon."

The bridge of her nose crinkled slightly. "A man? You mean that Armstrong fellow we learned about?"

"No," Ichigo sighed impatiently, and paused at the sound of Yuzu's return. "Just people's imagination."

Cradling a thermos and mugs, Yuzu sat between the two of them and picked up the conversation. "I think it's a nice thing. That way people don't have to feel so lonely."

Ichigo didn't say anything. His sideways gaze slanted towards Rukia whose frown turned from Yuzu to him and back to the moon. She often struggled to comprehend a lot about this world. How many times had he heard her talk of strength and duty, of remaining steady and even unattached? A great deal of the things he struggled to explain to her had to do with the whimsies born from human extravagance. Rukia was a Death-God. Her life had been slum streets and stealing to survive, then cold steel and the unheard flutter of black wings, and despite all her years of traveling to and from the human realm he couldn't imagine her understanding the romanticism and sentimentality that the living enjoyed. Even Yuzu, whom he had watched force herself to grow up so quickly after their mother's death, couldn't help but occasionally delight in little fairy tales and oddities.

"Do you have a wish ready?" Yuzu looked expectantly from her brother to Rukia.

"Wish?" Rukia was starting to feel quite lost.

Nodding vigorously, Yuzu demonstrated by clapping her hands together. "When you see a shooting star during the meteor shower you make a wish."

Awkwardly, Rukia touched her white fingertips together before pressing her palms against each other. She thought it wasn't so unlike a kido.

Yuzu suddenly gasped, face upturned. "I saw one! Look!"

Even Ichigo opened his eyes to scan the vastness and sure enough, a streak of sharp light passed over them and disappeared. And another soon after. When he glanced over, he was surprised to see that beside bright little Yuzu, Rukia sat like a dark echo. Her slim legs were tucked beneath her and her head was bent gracefully over joined hands, eyes closed. Ichigo let his eyes linger a little longer before turning back to the stars, a small half-smile on his face.

Rukia might not be a romantic, but perhaps even shinigamis could afford to have wishes.


End file.
